Effect of Power-Law Fluids Flow Structures on Germicides Disinfection Through Taylor–Couette Configuration

Abstract

Abstract Fluid disinfection involving ultraviolet (UV) rays is a promising method due to its easy implementation and low cost compared to other methods. In the present work, fluid disinfection in a Taylor–Couette configuration operating with power-law fluids with different absorbance coefficients, and fluence rates were simulated using the lattice Boltzmann Method. The effects of operating parameters such as Taylor and axial Reynolds numbers, power-law index behavior, and fluence rate were analyzed. Results show that the required UV dose decreases for an increase in absorbance coefficient, while it grows for increasing power-law indexes. For Ta = 120 and Re = 3, the disinfection reaches 82.3% for pseudo-plastic fluids and is complete for dilatant fluids. Considering different absorbance coefficients, it was observed that α=0.4 leads to complete disinfection regardless of the fluid. For α=0.5, fluid disinfection is complete for the dilatant fluid only. A value of 0.6 leads to partial disinfection (≈90%) for all fluids.